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Monte Melkonian Fund

Monte Melkonian was a thinker and a writer, as well as a man of deeds. He was not afraid to speak the truth as he saw it, despite the appearance of being out of touch with the intellectual fashions of the day. Some of his most controversial convictions--convictions for which he was castigated during the last years of his life--now appear in hindsight to have been well-taken, and even prophetic. On this page we reprint representative passages without further comment.

“There exists no Armenian ‘race.’ There is only an Armenian people, an Armenian nation. This is why we need to fight. The Armenian people in the diaspora are losing their identity as a cultural-national entity, succumbing to the centrifugal effects of cultural assimilation. If Armenians of the diaspora do not claim their right to live in their homeland they will gradually lose their common cultural identity. And if this happens, the white massacre of our nation will have succeeded.”
--“Our Origins: True and False,” article originally written in mid-1981, and later included in The Right to Struggle (San Francisco: Sardarabad Press, 1993) (henceforth RTS), pp. 3-6. The quoted passage appears on p.6.

“The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is, in the long run, going to hurt the USSR in immeasurable ways.”
--Letter to his folks dated February 12, 1980, in which Monte reflected on his August 1978 visit to Afghanistan.

“I don’t care whether someone has been born into a position of oppression or if he has “worked” his way there. If he oppresses, he oppresses. If he refuses to correct his behavior the easy way, then we’ll just have to do things the hard way. It’s as simple as that.”
--Personal correspondence with a friend, A.S., dated April 25, 1988.

“It is about time that we loudly repudiate the romantic conceit that ‘My pen is my gun.’ Pens are pens and guns are guns. There are more than enough ‘intellectuals’ in the diaspora. What we need are fighters, soldiers, fedaiis.”
--“A Critique of Past Notions,” The Right to Struggle, p. 194.

“We do not believe in benevolent friends, the inevitable triumph of justice, or covertly and cleverly manipulating the superpowers. If we are to achieve national self-determination, then we ourselves, the Armenian people, will have to fight for it. We believe in the power of organized masses and in the capacity of our people to determine their own future. We believe in revolution.”
--“The Question of Strategy,” a collectively written article, which originally appeared under the imprimatur of ASALA-Revolutionary Movement, in 1984. Later, in April 1987, it was published as a photocopied pamphlet by the Kaytzer group in London. It was included in RTS, pp. 53-72. Emphasis in the original.

“The momentum of the times is leading people from one mistake to another. We are witnessing this in our own ranks, too.”
--“A Word on the June 1990 Version of the FPLA’s Political Charter,” an unpublished draft document, dated August 1. 1990, p. 10.

“Our people have had the honor to be among those who founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Despite the innumerable errors, both large and small, it is an undeniable fact that only as a part of the USSR have our people been able to survive Turkish invasion, live within secure borders, and progress economically and culturally. In spite of the current criticisms expressed from every quarter, it is a fact that the inhabitants of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic today enjoy a higher standard of living and more security than have Armenians at any other time in their three thousand year history. And all of this has taken place in the face of enormous challenges, including foreign invasion, economic isolation, civil war and an unimaginably costly World War.”
--“National Self-Determination or National Suicide?” p. 165. The article was originally written in Armenian, dated October 24, 1988, and posted form Poissy Prison, in France. It was first published in the first edition of The Right to Struggle, 1990.

“Mass starvation, rampant epidemics, enormous official corruption and incompetence, massive unemployment, exploitation, war and vulnerability to genocidal invasion—this was the wonderful Disneyland of ‘independent’ Armenia. And this is what the Tricolor symbolizes today. It is mind-boggling, then, to hear that this flag—this reminder of the most bitter period of our three thousand years of history—has now been hoisted above Opera Square. This action can only indicate an astounding ignorance of our history—ignorance or lack of comprehension, or both.”
--Ibid., p. 165.

“…it is the duty of progressive and revolutionary Armenians to lead and educate all patriots possible. In fact, this is an essential part of our struggle.”
--“A Word on the June 1990 Version of the FPLA’s Political Charter,” an unpublished, eleven pages, handwritten, dated August 1. 1990, p. 10.

"Exploitation and oppression are in themselves forms of violence, and to defend myself and others I will leave all my options open, including violent options. This is natural, and the way things go. I don't care whether someone has been born into a position of oppression or if he has "worked" his way there. If he oppresses, he oppresses. If he refuses to correct his behavior the easy way, then we'll just have to do things the hard way. It's as simple as that."
--Personal correspondence with a friend, A.S., dated April 25, 1988.

"A memorial can be rebuilt, but victims of genocide cannot be resurrected from the ashes. In view of this very real threat [of Turkish military aggression] the demonstrators who chant for 'independence' from the Soviet Union are for the most part unwittingly calling for national destruction."
--"National Self-Determination or National Suicide?" Article originally written in Armenian, dated October 24, 1988, posted form Poissy Prison, first published in the first edition of The Right to Struggle, 1990, p. 164.

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